BSS, Cox’s Bazar :
IOM, the UN migration agency, is building hundreds of new temporary shelters each week under a rapid response project to create safer homes for thousands at risks from landslides and flooding in the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh.
Over 600 Rohingyas are working alongside IOM staff, in cash for work programmes, to construct the new shelters using specially developed systems which allow for rapid construction of structures robust enough to withstand tough, monsoon conditions, an IOM press release said.
But with another cyclone season on the horizon, months of rains ahead, and the refugee response in Cox’s Bazar facing a major funding crisis, more international support is urgently needed to help hundreds of thousands of people who remain at risk, according to the release.
Almost one million Rohingyas who fled violence in Myanmar are now living under tarpaulins on the steep, sandy slopes of the district in southern Bangladesh, which suffers from some of the heaviest monsoon rains in the entire region.
Around 200,000 are currently assessed as being under direct threat from landslides and floods. Although humanitarian agencies have already relocated around 23,000 of those most at risk, tens of thousands more urgently need to be moved to safer ground, with numbers predicted to grow as worsening monsoon conditions set in.
The IOM shelter teams and Rohingyas involved in cash for work programmes are constructing as many as 50 new emergency shelters a day to house those most affected, including some of those hit by recent storms which caused dozens of landslides, destroyed shelters and claimed a number of lives.
Previously, most refugee families built their own shelters after receiving materials and training from IOM. Assistance with construction was only given to those identified as most vulnerable, such as the elderly, disabled, or lone parents.
The emergency shelters are being erected on the land newly prepared by IOM and its partners, working with thousands of Rohingyas and local villagers as part of the Site Maintenance Engineering Project (SMEP). The SMEP, a joint project with WFP and UNHCR, has made large areas safe for relocation in just six weeks.
The shelter teams are on target to complete 1,500 new shelters by the end of July, providing safer homes for an estimated 7,500 people.
IOM, the UN migration agency, is building hundreds of new temporary shelters each week under a rapid response project to create safer homes for thousands at risks from landslides and flooding in the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh.
Over 600 Rohingyas are working alongside IOM staff, in cash for work programmes, to construct the new shelters using specially developed systems which allow for rapid construction of structures robust enough to withstand tough, monsoon conditions, an IOM press release said.
But with another cyclone season on the horizon, months of rains ahead, and the refugee response in Cox’s Bazar facing a major funding crisis, more international support is urgently needed to help hundreds of thousands of people who remain at risk, according to the release.
Almost one million Rohingyas who fled violence in Myanmar are now living under tarpaulins on the steep, sandy slopes of the district in southern Bangladesh, which suffers from some of the heaviest monsoon rains in the entire region.
Around 200,000 are currently assessed as being under direct threat from landslides and floods. Although humanitarian agencies have already relocated around 23,000 of those most at risk, tens of thousands more urgently need to be moved to safer ground, with numbers predicted to grow as worsening monsoon conditions set in.
The IOM shelter teams and Rohingyas involved in cash for work programmes are constructing as many as 50 new emergency shelters a day to house those most affected, including some of those hit by recent storms which caused dozens of landslides, destroyed shelters and claimed a number of lives.
Previously, most refugee families built their own shelters after receiving materials and training from IOM. Assistance with construction was only given to those identified as most vulnerable, such as the elderly, disabled, or lone parents.
The emergency shelters are being erected on the land newly prepared by IOM and its partners, working with thousands of Rohingyas and local villagers as part of the Site Maintenance Engineering Project (SMEP). The SMEP, a joint project with WFP and UNHCR, has made large areas safe for relocation in just six weeks.
The shelter teams are on target to complete 1,500 new shelters by the end of July, providing safer homes for an estimated 7,500 people.
